Chronicle
A history of England by a royal clerk of Henry II, written a generation after Becket’s death. It gives a continuous narrative of the quarrel between king and archbishop and copies many of the letters and documents.
Read the text at sourcebooks.fordham.edu ↗Riley’s translation, volume 1, as a scanned book (Internet Archive); cited by its page where an entry gives one ↗
Roger of Hoveden (Howden, in Yorkshire) served in the royal administration; the Fordham editor describes him as a royal clerk who compiled his history in the early years of the thirteenth century. For the Becket dispute he gives a year-by-year narrative and transcribes many letters.
Two things should be kept in mind. He begins each year at Christmas, as the Fordham editor notes, so that the murder of 29 December 1170 stands under 1171. And he writes after Thomas Becket had become a saint: the archbishop is “the blessed Thomas” throughout.
Cited in
- 29 December 1170, firm date
- March 1179, firm date